Biography &Qualifications

Dr Miranda Horvath joined Middlesex University in 2010. She was previously a Lecuturer in Forensic Psychology at the University of Surrey and prior to that a Research Fellow in the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit at London Metropolitan University.

2012-2013 David Jenkins Chair in Forensic and Legal Medicine, Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians (http://www.fflm.ac.uk)

Associate Fellow and Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society

With Dr Jackie Gray and Dr Susan Hansen I co-organised Forensic Psychological Services two conferences on Sexual Violence. The first was held on the 8th September 2011 and the second on the 17th and 18th September 2015, both at Middlesex University. For more information see https://www.mdx.ac.uk/events/2015/09/sexual-violence-conference

In 2012 Dr Jackie Gray, Dr Susan Hansen and gave 3 workshops commissioned by the British Psychological Society Learning Centre as part of the Division of Forensic Psychology Continuing Professional Development Workshop Series. The first "'The Psychology of Sexual Violence' took place on May 15th in London; the second 'Preventing Sexual Violence' will take place in September 13th in London; the third "Understanding and Preventing Sexual Violence" which took place on the 3rd October in Glasgow. We delivered another workshop on 'Preventing Sexual Violence' on Tuesday 21st May 2013.

Research Outputs &Interests

My research focuses on sexual violence from an applied social psychological perspective. My work is informed by a variety of social psychological constructs such as; script theory, sex roles, group processes and negotiative space alongside feminist theory. I also maintain a focus on the broader cultural context in which sexual violence occurs.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Peer Reviewed

Horvath, M.A.H. & Massey, K. (2018). "The Impact of Witnessing Other People's Trauma: The Resilience and Coping Strategies of Members of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, 55, 99-104.

Horvath, M.A.H. & Kelly, L. (2007). From the outset: Why violence should be a priority for the Commission for Equality and Human Rights. A briefing paper by the End Violence Against Women Campaign and the Roddick Foundation.

Horvath, M.A.H. (2017). ‘…I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it…’: The impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of 11-16 year olds. Screen Time Event, Edinburgh, March 28.

Horvath, M.A.H. (2015). The effectiveness and impact of the child protection and criminal justice system on victims of intrafamilial child sexual abuse: Findings from a Rapid Evidence Assessment. The Crisis in Child Protection Conference, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, February 12.

Horvath, M.A.H. (2013). Panel member in Plenary session 'Are we privatising morality?' The eight annual Parliament and the Internet Conference, October 31.

Horvath, M.A.H. (2013). "Basically…porn is everywhere": What do we know about the effects of pornography on children and young people? 'Walking the Tightrope' Conference, Glasgow, October 29.

Horvath, M.A.H. (2013). "Basically…porn is everywhere": Examining the relationships between pornography, lads mags and sexual violence. Manchester and District Medico-Legal Society, October 16.

Horvath, M.A.H. (2013). Multi-disciplinary perspectives on multiple perpetrator rape. Paper presented in the Inaugural Wagenaar symposia at the European Association of Psychology and Law Conference, Coventry. September 4-6.

Horvath, M.A.H. & Massey, K. (2013). Witnessing other people's trauma: What does it mean for members of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine Annual Conference, Leeds, May 10-11.

Holly, J. & Horvath, M.A.H. (2013). Complicated Matters: The Stella Mental Health Initiative. One day conference for The Bristol TARA Project: New study of the experiences of homeless women in Bristol. Bristol University, Bristol. April 24.

Horvath, M.A.H. (2012). What Makes a Rape-Prone Society? Research on the links between 'Lads mags' and sexism, sexual aggression, and other forms of sexual consumerism and sexual violence. A seminar that links 16 Days' activities and Engender's "Feminists Talk Scotland's Futures" series, December 7.

Horvath, M.A.H. (2011). Critical issues for adult victim-survivors of rape and sexual assault: Developments and current practice. Keynote at the National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers International Conference, September 28-30.

Horvath, M.A.H. & Brown, J. (2010). What lies behind the numbers? Explanations for attrition. Responding to Rape One Day Conference, London South Bank University. April 20.

Horvath, M.A.H. (2009). Alcohol and drugs in rape: What do we know and what do we need to know? Lancashire SAFE Centre Conference: Alcohol doesn't rape: people do. Old England Hotel, Lake District, UK, November 6-7.

Horvath, M.A.H. & Giner-Sorolla, R. (2004). Below the age of consent: Influences on moral and legal judgements of adult-adolescent sexual relationships. Paper presented at the Legal Decision Making Symposium, University College London, London, UK, December 15.

Scally, M. & Horvath, M.A.H. (2013). Healthy relationships? An exploration of violence, blame and relationships amongst sixteen to nineteen year old students. Poster presented at the European Association of Psychology and Law Conference, Coventry. September 4-6.

Horvath, M.A.H. & Gray, J.M. (2013). Multiple Perpetrator Rape in the Courtroom: An exploratory investigation. Paper presented at the European Association of Psychology and Law Conference, Coventry. September 4-6.

Kassiram, A., Horvath, M.A.H. (2013). Trinidadian women's experiences of help-seeking for domestic violence and somatization disorder. Paper presented at the European Association of Psychology and Law Conference, Coventry. September 4-6.

Parry-Crooke, G. & Horvath, M.A.H. (2012). How to Involve Women in Secure Settings in Research and Evaluation? Involve Conference, Nottingham. November 13.

Lambine, M. & Horvath, M.A.H. (2011). Comparing Duo and Group Multiple Perpetrator Rape Offences: Towards a New Offence Progression Model. Paper presented at the National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers International Conference, September 28-30.

Horvath, M.A.H. & Chambers, J.C. (2009). Offence types, their characteristics and associations with offence behaviours in multiple perpetrator rape. Paper presented at the 19th Conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law Sorrento, Italy 2-5 September.

Horvath, M.A.H. & Kelly, L. (2008). Gang/Group/Multiple Perpetrator rape: Naming an offence and initial research findings. Paper presented at the 18th Conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law, Maastricht, Netherlands, July 2-5.

Horvath, M.A.H. & Brown, J. (2006). Under the influence: drunkenness and sobriety in rape. Paper presented at the 16th Conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law "The cases, the courts, the consequences", Liverpool, UK, June 27-June 30.

Publication Feed

Horvath, Miranda A. H. and Massey, Kristina (2018) The impact of witnessing other people’s trauma: the resilience and coping strategies of members of the faculty of forensic and legal medicine. Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, 55 . pp. 99-104. ISSN 1752-928X

Martellozzo, Elena and Monaghan, Andrew and Adler, Joanna R. and Davidson, Julia and Leyva, Rodolfo and Horvath, Miranda A. H. (2016) "I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it…”A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people. Project Report. Middlesex University, NSPCC, OCC.

Funded Research &Knowledge Exchange Projects

Recent Examples of Funded Research include:

2015-2016 - A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviour of children and young people. Funded by National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. Forensic Psychological Services with the Centre for Abuse and Trauma Studies, Middlesex University.

2013 - Literature Review on the impact of pornography on children and young people. Funded by the Office of the Children's Commissioner (http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/). Forensic Psychological Services withUniversity of Kent, University of Bedfordshire and Canterbury Christ Church University

2010 - 2013 - Research on the overlaps between problem substance use and domestic and sexual violence experienced by young women. For Against Violence and Abuse (http://www.avaproject.org.uk) funded by the John Paul Getty Jnr Foundation.

2010 - 2013 - Evaluating the Stella Project Mental Health Initiative. For Against Violence and Abuse (www.avaproject.org.uk) funded by the Department of Health.

Membership of professional bodies and other activities

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Division of Forensic Psychology

British Psychological Society

British Psychological Society

American Psychology-Law Society

European Association of Psychology and Law

From 2009-2017 I was an Associate Editor of the Journal of Sexual Aggression which is published in association with the National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers (NOTA) by Routledge. In 2011 I commissioned and edited three debate papers titled: "Two steps forward and two steps back: Rape investigation and prosecution in the wake of the Stern Review" which are available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tjsa20/17/3 The papers debate the state of rape investigation and prosecution in England and Wales in the aftermath of the Stern Review and provide numerous challenging and thought provoking insights. The papers featured have been were authored by Dr Jan Jordan (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand), Dr Kate Cook (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) and Professor Jennifer Brown (London School of Economics, UK).

I am on the editorial board of Women's Studies International Forum which is a bimonthly journal to aid the distribution and exchange of feminist research in the multidisciplinary, international area of women's studies and in feminist research in other disciplines. The policy of the journal is to establish a feminist forum for discussion and debate.

Advisory Positions

MsUnderstood Partnership Boys and Young Men Sub-Group. Invited panel member of the MsUnderstood Partnership boys and young men subgroup which draws together professionals with knowledge and expertise of boys and young men’s experiences of violence, abuse, and service engagement. The boys and young men subgroup will: Inform the development and methodology of the project; provide feedback on outputs, such as survey; support the MsUnderstood programme to influence and engage with current policy trends on peer-on-peer abuse and support the partnership to create opportunities for boys and young men to engage with work of the MSU.

Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in the Family Environment. Invited Panel member on the inquiry into child sexual abuse conducted under the powers conferred on the Children’s Commissioner under the Children and Families Act 2014 which aims to assess the scale and nature of child sexual abuse in the family environment in England, examine current inter-agency practices for recognising and addressing this issue, and make evidence based recommendations to national and local government and relevant statutory agencies on the most effective means for tackling child sexual abuse.

Metropolitan Police External Rape Scrutiny Panel. Invited Panel Member an external challenge panel formed of independent academics with expertise in this area who scrutinise the decisions of a Metropolitan Police Panel which assesses those allegations agreed as ‘no crime’ by the Crime Management Unit.

Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups (CSEGG). Invited panel member on the inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups (CSEGG) conducted under the Children's Commissioner's powers in the Children Act 2004 which aims to throw light on the scale, scope, nature and extent of the sexual exploitation, victimisation and abuse that girls and boys in England are subjected by street gangs and loosely formed groups.

SCD2 (Sapphire) Reference Group. Invited member of the Sapphire Reference Group which exists to help the Metropolitan Police Service rape and serious sexual offences investigation command to improve the service to victims of serious sexual violence. The goal is to increase public confidence that perpetrators of rapes and serious sexual offences will be brought to justice and that victims will be treated in the manner most appropriate to their needs.

Research on Young People and Sexual Consent, London Metropolitan University Invited member of the advisory group. This research project is designed to inform the Office of the Childrenís Commissionerís Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups (CSEGG). The research seeks to understand how young people understand consent to sexual activity and how this shapes their expectations, choices and experiences.

Safe Choices Programme, The Children's Society and nia Invited member of the advisory group. The programme is a collaboration between the Children Society and nia to support young women leaving care and youth offenders'institutes. This project, funded by the Big Lottery: Youth in focus, will work in six London boroughs per year over a period of five years [2012-2016]. nia has also been awarded funding to deliver Safe Choices work in two North/East London boroughs under the Big Lottery: Reaching Communities programme for three years [2012-2015].